An enclosure normally covers and protects the engine, hydraulic pumps, valves and other working components of a hydraulic excavator. The engine may be mounted at the rear of the excavator's rotatable upper unit to aid in counter-balancing the boom and attached implement mounted on the front of the upper unit. Additional counterweights are oftentimes releasably attached on the rear of the upper frame to further aid in such counterbalancing during excavator operation.
A counterweight installation and removal device, such as the one disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 254,496, filed on May 18, 1972, by Stanley A. Jorgensen et al for "COUNTERWEIGHT SUSPENSION DEVICE", now U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,330 and assigned to the assignee of this application, may be attached on the engine's enclosure to aid in the mounting and demounting of such counterweights. Heavy structural supports are normally required at the rear of the enclosure to accommodate the heavy loads imposed thereon by the counterweights. Such supports are bulky and unduly increase the complexity and overall length of the enclosure.
The standard enclosure normally comprises a frame structure having a plurality of panels removably secured thereon to provide access to the aforementioned working components disposed therein. A stack-up of manufacturing and assembly tolerances frequently results in the misalignment of attachment holes formed through the panels and in the underlying frame structure. Thus, new attachment holes compensating for such misalignment, must be formed through the panels or frame structure during assembly of the enclosure.